Quotes from Nathaniel Hawthorne

And Pearl, stepping in, mid-leg deep, beheld her own white feet at the bottom, while out of a still lower depth came the gleam of a kind of fragmentary smile, floating to and fro in the agitated water.

Then she was sure of her, and tasted hours of quiet, sad, delicious happiness;

In der Bitterkeit und Qual meines Herzens habe ich gelacht über den Gegensatz zwischen dem, was ich scheine, und dem, was ich bin! Und auch Satan lacht darüber!

Instead of a reprimand for their previous negligence, the case seemed rather to require an eulogium on their praiseworthy caution after the mischief had happened; a grateful recognition of the promptitude of their zeal the moment that there was no longer any remedy.

Es war der letzte Ausdruck der Kleinmütigkeit einer gebrochenen Seele. Ihm fehlte die Energie, nach dem besseren Schicksal zu greifen, das in seiner Reichweite schien. Er wiederholte das Wort. Allein Hester! Du wirst nicht allein gehen! flüsterte sie leise zur Antwort. Damit war alles gesagt.

The law we broke!—the sin here so awfully revealed!—let these alone be in thy thoughts! I fear! I fear! It may be, that, when we forgot our God,—when we violated our reverence each for the other's soul,—it was thenceforth vain to hope that we could meet hereafter, in an everlasting and pure reunion.

That little baggage hath witchcraft in her.

Little, impalpable worlds, were those soap-bubbles, with the big world depicted, in hues bright as imagination, on the nothing of their surface.

Ever afterwards so touched, and so transfigured.

A good man's prayers are golden recompense! rejoined old Roger Chillingworth, as he took his leave. Yea, they are the current gold coin of the New Jerusalem, with the King's own mint-mark on them!

She could scarcely forgive him--least of all now, when the heavy footstep of their approaching Fate might be heard, nearer, nearer, nearer!--for being able so completely to withdraw himself from their mutual world--while she groped darkly, and stretched forth her cold hands, and found him not.

just as there comes a warm sunbeam into every cottage window, so comes a lovebeam of God's care and pity for every separate need.

It is singular, however, how long a time often passes before words embody things; and with what security two persons, who choose to avoid a certain subject, may approach its very verge, and retire without disturbing it.

The secret is, said Phoebe, smiling, that I have learned how to talk with hens and chickens.

What a terrible thing it is to try to let off a little bit of truth into this miserable humbug of a world!

God, said the dying man, pointing his finger, with a ghastly look, at the undismayed countenance of his enemy, God will give him blood to drink!

In short, the almost torpid creatures of my own fancy twitted me with imbecility, and not without fair occasion.

That pit of blackness that lies beneath us, everywhere ... the firmest substance of human happiness is but a thin crust spread over it, with just reality enough to bear up the illusive stage-scenery amid which we tread. It needs no earthquake to open the chasm.

All have some artificial badge which the world, and themselves among the first, learn to consider as a genuine characteristic.

A recluse, like Hepzibah, usually displays remarkable frankness, and at least temporary affability, on being absolutely cornered, and brought to the point of personal intercourse; like the angel whom Jacob wrestled with, she is ready to bless you when once overcome.

it was cause enough that the world was not worthy to be any longer trodden by his feet.

Unable to penetrate to the secret place of his soul where his motives lay hidden, he believed that a supernatural voice had called him onward, and that a supernatural power had obstructed his retreat.

Go, Annie, murmured he; I have deceived myself, and must suffer for it. I yearned for sympathy, and thought, and fancied, and dreamed that you might give it me; but you lack the talisman, Annie, that should admit you into my secrets.

It is very queer, but not the less true, that people are generally quite as vain, or even more so, of their deficiencies than of their available gifts; as was Hepzibah of this native inapplicability, so to speak, of the Pyncheons to any useful purpose.